Merlin

i'd probably go with the 9815, unless you can find yourself a 9835 that was a damn fine deck. kenwood does have some decent product and i would probably compare then more on the same level than saying one is better than the other when you look at the excelon product anyways. but its all a matter of personally preferance. i sell kenwood, i use alpine.

BCC

I sell both brands, and hands down i would go w/ Kenwood, the 9815 and the 9835 are both discontinued!! I never used to be a kenwwod fan until 2005 when they came out with a kick *** line up!!! Alpine has no heads with anything more than 2 volt pre's until the 9861 which is 649!!!! Kenwood has 4 volt at the 249 price point, and yes I have compared kenwoods vs alpines 4 volt and they are the same or very very close!!!!

Hardcore Rock Superstar

iTrader: (2)

not to cause trouble....and i haven't physically tested this with a multimeter as im too lazy, and it's too hot out here as of lately, but upgrading from a 7894 which they said had 4V preouts to the IVA-W200, which they said had 2V preouts....none the less, I didn't touch my gains at all, and things sound pretty similar, in no way is the music now quieter or distorted, nor when i looked was my one amp clipping - according to the lil clipping light.

But thats just my experience...one day i'll get out and test this all and have pictures to show people. But hte point is....granted my deck happened to be a $1300 deck, and hte previos was a $600 deck...eventhough alpine said the prevolts were now 2V less - i did not notice it. They could have lied on the old deck, or the new deck could be stronger than what they say, im not 100% sure, but they're pretty close in my opinion.